Ongoing Submissions: The Pale Leaves

Guidelines & Format

Whether they be found on a forest path, a beach, a field, a desert, or in an old house or an abandoned church, the tales we are looking for all tell the story of a strange occurrence or encounter in the form of letters, diary entries, newspaper clippings, documents, transmissions, pages torn from field guides, etc.

We are looking for weird fiction and gothic horror, 1,000 to 2,000 words in length. Word count is the least flexible of our guidelines, and if you submit something that does not fall within that range, it will automatically be rejected. This will probably change in the future, but for now, keep it within 1,000 to 2,000 words.

We do not want previously published stories at this time.

Format your story appropriately. For more information on the proper format for submitting short stories, click here.

In terms of what is acceptable, we do not want excessive profanity, lewdness, or gore. That isn’t to say that we won’t allow these things, but there are boundries.

Limit the use of profanity.

Please, no porn.

The gore should not be gratuitous or pointless.

Submission Periods

We post every week on Sunday, and so each Monday begins a new submission period. Submissions are open every Monday through Wednesday, and you are submitting for your work to be published on the upcoming Sunday. This means that if you submit one week, and your work is not published, then it is no longer being considered.

Each week has a new submission pool, so if you want to submit your work the next week, you are more than welcome to do so.

How to Submit

Once you’ve finished and formatted your story, send it as an attachment to [email protected]. Be sure to send in your submission using the email address that is attached to your PayPal account.

In the body of the email, tell us a little bit about yourself! Should your story be published, there will be an author bio at the bottom, and this is what we will use. Feel free to leave social media links!

Payments

At this time, we pay $30 USD for short stories. We pay through PayPal, and all payments are sent out before we publish.

Rights & Ownership

By submitting your work, you give us the right to publish your story on our website. That’s it. We don’t hold the exclusive rights for 60 days or anything like that. We want to showcase fantastic work — not hold it hostage.